What do you think the energy landscape might look like in just eight years time – which electricity-generating technology will win-out on the energy battlefield? That was the tough question speakers at a panel discussion at the EWEA Annual Event on Monday debated.

While persuasive arguments were made by those speaking at the session — called “Post 2020: Which Technologies Will Deliver? — it became obvious that providing increasing amounts of affordable and local green electricity while rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions isn’t likely going to depend on only one of the technologies.

“This is the place to be for renewable energy and green growth”, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Prime Minister of Denmark, said in Copenhagen this morning at the opening of the European Wind Energy Association’s Annual Event. And with 25,000 jobs in the Danish wind sector, which provides 60 billion in Danish Kroner in exports per year, she’s not wrong.

Denmark is a bright beacon for the wind industry – by 2020 it aims to meet 50% of its electricity demand with wind power – a target which will create 8,000 new jobs. But whilst Denmark’s commitment to a greener future remains resolute, across Europe other countries are swapping long-term vision for short-term gain.

Do you want to know more about what makes wind energy work and what the future holds for the sector? Then perhaps you should join the thousands of wind power enthusiasts who will be descending on Copenhagen this weekend for the EWEA 2012 Annual Event.

For more information on how you can visit the exhibition or attend the conference sessions, from as little as €50, check out the website.

Next week Copenhagen will be buzzing with wind energy professionals keen to find out the latest market and technology developments at the EWEA annual conference and exhibition. The EWEA blog spoke to Michael Nørtoft Frydensbjerg from Siemens Wind Power who is chairing a session on 17 April aiming to uncover how wind power is driving the modernisation of European grids…

What are the limitations of the current EU grid and why does it need to change?

The electricity grid in Europe is mainly designed with an eye to distributing electricity from large power plants. Today power generation is more decentralised and large wind power plants are located away from traditional power plants. These changes in the power generation pattern have to be considered when designing the electricity grid in order to avoid bottlenecks and system collapse.

Today’s turbines can be mind-bogglingly big, but big is not necessarily better. Mike Woebbeking, Vice President of GL group and chair of a session at EWEA 2012 in Copenhagen on 16 April that delves into turbine size, tells the EWEA blog that size isn’t everything…

How has the average turbine size changed over the last decade?

Ten years ago the average size was around 1.5 MW, today it is close to 3 MW. Thus the average size of onshore wind turbines more or less doubled. For offshore wind this is more difficult to say. A decade ago there were only very few turbines installed offshore. The average size could be assumed to be around 1.5 MW. Today the average offshore turbine size is below 5 MW, however 7 MW turbines and bigger are under development. The average size of offshore turbines has roughly tripled within a decade.